Taxidermy: history, art and culture

April 22, 2013

Guests: Rachel Poliquin, Beth Beverly

Walk into any natural history museum and you’ll see the animal dioramas – lions prowling the African veldt, a herd of buffalo on an American prairie, a polar bear towering over a dead seal. And, in hunting lodges, and even home décor, an animal’s head might be mounted on the wall. For years people have stuffed and mounted animals to display as science, art or a trophy. This hour, we explore the history and art of taxidermy with RACHEL POLIQUIN, curator and the author of “The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing” and BETH BEVERLY, a taxidermist and artist and owner of Diamond Tooth Taxidermy in Philadelphia.

Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir and Mark Wilson, Somerset, from Nanoq: Flat Out and Bluesome, 2004. Photo courtesy of the artists.

The African lion diorama in Akeley Hall of African Mammals, American Museum of Natural History, New York. The scene depicts the Serengeti Plain, east of Lake Victoria, Tanzania. Photo courtesy of Asterio Tecson.

Taxidermy lion, ceramics, and glass. Photo by Karin Nussbaumer. Courtesy of the artists and the National Museum of Oslo.

Life and Nice, from Iris Schieferstein’s Life Can Be So Nice, 2001. Animal parts, glass, formalin, distilled water. Photo by Stephan Rabold. Courtesy of the artist.

Life and Nice, from Iris Schieferstein’s Life Can Be So Nice, 2001. Animal parts, glass, formalin, distilled water. Photo by Stephan Rabold. Courtesy of the artist.

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